Legendary Sports Illustrated top columnist Rick Reilly was forced to admit he has been wrong about Notre Dame football all year-- and he has the polished helmets to prove it.

Reilly told his twitter feed that he would polish every helmet at Notre Dame if they defeated USC in their final game.

They did; 22-13.

So last week Reilly was forced to fly to South Bend and polish, or rather patch as it is these days, every helmet in the place.

Before the season started Reilly had said Notre Dame had no chance of competing.

Reilly admitted that the USC prediction was not the only reason he had to eat humble pie.

“It was a column I'd written just before the season insisting Notre Dame's reputation far outkicked its performance ("it hasn't been a factor in almost 20 years,") and how Notre Dame gets far more hype and perks than it deserves ("Somebody needs to stick a pin in the still-inflated Golden Dome") and how Notre Dame should save itself the weekly NBC embarrassment ("Do the right thing and don't renew").

Oops.

They wound up 12-0, No. 1 in the nation, and will now play Alabama in the BCS title game Jan. 7 in Miami.”

When he got to Notre Dame’s equipment room a bunch of players were waiting, chanting "EXTRA SHINY!"

For the next three hours Reilly patched the helmets carefully.

“Turns out they don't polish the helmets at Notre Dame anymore. They patch them. They switched last October to a new kind of textured graphic helmet that's so shiny they look like miniature Golden Domes.When they get a gouge in them, you don't paint them, you apply a sticky gold bandage over it, the way you would on the skinned knee of a Trump,” he wrote.

He said in the end it was a honor. “This team will never be forgotten at Notre Dame, and saying that at a school with 11 national championships is a mouthful. Imagine: They went from unranked to No. 1 and finished up beating USC, a team that went from No. 1 to unranked.”